Entergy To Lay Off 165 Arkansas Workers

Entergy says it will be laying off about 800 workers in several states, including about 165 workers in Arkansas. Entergy currently employs about 3,000 workers in the state. Entergy Arkansas Spokeswoman Sally Graham says some of those layoffs will occur at their Arkansas Nuclear One plant in Russellville and all the local layoffs will be made by the end of the year. “It's mostly management. So, during storm restoration, [we] just want to let customers know we're not talking about cutting any positions of the linemen, or operations coordinators out there who get their power back on.” She says plans for the layoffs resulted from a money-saving effort by the multi-state utility. “Well it is a changing business world and in an effort to meet those challenges and opportunities we did have a team of employees who devoted thousands of hours of analyzing how to make our business better. And the goal is to create a world-class organization focused on customer service, operational excellence and sustainable value for our customers,” Graham says. Entergy says the job cuts are part of a reorganization plan aimed at saving $200 million to $250 million by 2016. The company will also reportedly close a call center in Arkansas. More at Talkbusiness.net